How To Fanfiction (Tips for new writers)

Tip 7 + 8: Writers Block & No Go's

Tip 7: FUCKING WRITERS BLOCK

I can't tell you how much I hate this.

As someone who both writes and draws I know very well what it's like to just lose any ideas and feel uninspired and it FUCKING SUCKS

If you happen to feel that way: Stop what you are doing. Right. Now.

Don't force yourself to write when you don't feel like it, or you'll regret it later on, believe me.

Getting out of writers block is something I didn't really figure out yet. Or, well, at least not an universally acceptable recipe.

I have a very weird way of just reading myself out of writers block with 21+ one shots, but we don't talk about this.

My tip is: Don't write if you don't feel like it, lay back instead, read a lot of stuff of people who inspire you, collect some ideas of others (it's not stealing, it's learning) and take a deep breath.

Reading a lot and doing things that get the creative part of your brain going - that's the stuff. What exactly those things are is something you'll have to figure out yourself.

Or, sometimes just sitting down and writing about whatever comes to your mind is enough to help. 

Tip 8: Please don't do that

I have read a lot of fan fiction in my life. And, dear lord, there where some weird things. No. There were A LOT of weird things.

But the weirdest thing is, that this stuff happens in fan fiction again and again. Overused tropes, which I highly doubt anyone really takes serious at this point.

Basically, this is a small collection of fanfic moments that I hate and that I'm asking you to avoid.

Here we go:

- normalized relationships between and adult and a minor 

- the girl get's sold by her parents without a acceptable explanation or is being patronized in any way that would never happen in real life

- ridiculously unrealistic scenes that are meant to make the plot progress, like the girl get's a fever all of a sudden and then faints (preferably waking up with her crush sitting in front of her hospital bed after carrying her there)  or; the parents are always on business trips. Together. For months. Leaving their underage kid alone (preferably with the hot bad boy neighbor to take care of their child)

- trying to write relatable characters but just robbing them of any personality

- the fishing for compliments. For some reason the main character always says that they're ugly or plain looking but end up having an entire harem falling for them (that's not what happens to ugly people, you can admit that your characters are hot)

- tragic back stories that don't connect to the current plot (don't you think their trauma will influence them in the present?)

- a teenager/young adult getting treated like a literal child

lmao and those are just some of them

I know, I know, I'm guilty myself when it comes to some of those points, but this is why I'm telling you to be better than me!

What I'm trynna tell you is: Please don't do these things, because unrealistic plots make the reader go '....uh?'  and then leave your book.

Avoid too over-the-top themes if you don't know how to handle them.

Relationships with minors are such a thing - it's not wrong to write about it, but if you do that, consider the consequences and controversies that come with such a relationship in real life.

The point is that these things are common tropes but all entirely unrealistic, yet they're all being used again and again.

I know, I told you to write about whatever you feel like, but there's just a line you shouldn't cross in some cases. I talked about the importance of good research and such - just think about what you write.